Daily Gardening Tips
From eagle-rock.org
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- List of Daily Gardening Tips gives an alphabetical list of all tips.
June 2012
Day Topic Tip Photo Photo caption More 9 Growing carrots Carrots like any soil but rocks will deform them. They also don't like and don't need compost or manure. I always sow them in a field that was composted the year before and where another crop has grown on that compost. They grow well even in soils that are so poor that most other crops won't develop. Sow summer carrots from February to the end of June. Winter carrots from March to May. Add wet sand to the seeds and keep them a few days like this, then sow the seeds together with the sand. The sand helps you sow regularly and the moist seeds germinate faster. Sow ca 2 cm deep. 
From Deutschlands Flora in Abbildungen Carrot 8 Beetroot You can sow beetroot directly into the soil. It helps to put the seeds a few days in water to make them germinate faster. You can also sow beets in pots and then plant them out, but because beets have taproots you cannot keep them long in pots. Thin the beets at 15 cm in the row. Desired pH = 6-6.5 (a bit acid). Beetroots need to grow in the full sun and don't tolerate shade. 
Beetroot Beetroot 7 Growing beans Only sow when there's no danger anymore for frost or night frost. For the region where i have my garden (temperate climate, northern hemisphere) this is after May 15. You can sow until half July, depending on the species. Don't add fresh manure to the soil, but beans like a humus-rich soil so you can add some old compost or saw dust to prevent the beans from rotting. Beans like full sun and dislike cold and wet weather. 
Green beans Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) 6 Watering plants When you water your lawn or your plants, outside or in a greenhouse, it's better to do this infrequently than to sprinkle daily. When you give water daily the plants have the tendency to keep their roots near the surface. But when you occasionally give them a good quantity of water, the plants will send their roots deeper and the entire plants become stronger. 
Sprinkler Watering a garden 5 Integrated garden What is an integrated garden? It is a garden with a variety of different plants, medicinal plants, herbs, flowers, leaf vegetables, root vegetables, berry bushes, etc. Each plant species has its own energy and also receives typical energies from the cosmos and the earth and all that is around. Flowers receive other energies than roots. Plants can mutually enrich one another in the sense of energies. Crops grown in such a garden have better nurturing elements for your spiritual well-being. 
Sweet William & foxglove, garlic, cabbage, potatoes Spiritual aspects of gardening 4 Preparing the soil Section 4 of the Gardening Seminar:Start your own garden tells about different soil layers, digging a soil and water management. 
Normal digging with a spade Preparing the soil 3 Mulching In nature healthy soils are covered, either with green plants or with leaf litter. Covered soil has a crumbly texture, allows water to pass through and is a rich environment for many micro-organisms that need oxygen. Soil under a layer of mulch will seldom dry out. In our garden we can copy this natural condition by sowing green manure plants on empty fields, or covering them with a layer of mulch. For mulch we can use hay or straw or also any other natural material. You can also cover the soil with mulch in-between bigger plants, such as berry bushes and larger perennials. 
Leaves make natural mulch Mulching 2 Bees in the garden "Bees play an important role in pollinating flowering plants, and are the major type of pollinator in ecosystems that contain flowering plants. Bees either focus on gathering nectar or on gathering pollen depending on demand, especially in social species. Bees gathering nectar may accomplish pollination, but bees that are deliberately gathering pollen are more efficient pollinators. It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees, especially the domesticated European honey bee."[1] 
A swarm of bees Pollination 1 Sowing "Prepare the surface earth well, to make a good seed-bed. Plant when the ground is moist, if possible, and preferably just before a rain... For shallow-planted seeds, firm the earth above them by walking over the row or by patting it down with a hoe [I usually do it with the back side of a rake, or with my hand]. Special care should be exercised not to sow very small and slow-germinating seeds, as celery, carrot, onion, in poorly prepared soil or in ground that bakes. 
The photo shows little holes made with a board with bumps for sowing radish seeds. I cover them with lava gravel or fine soil. Sowing
